G.E.O. Project

Global Evangelism Outreach (G.E.O.) Project

WHAT: A venue at Southeastern University to mobilize and equip those with the specific call of missionary evangelist, missionary, or church planter in the 21st century for local as well as global missions. The G.E.O. Project is a co-curricular opportunity for all students. The G.E.O. Project helps facilitate the call of all believers to be a witness to the lost and dying world by indentifying those with the gift of evangelist, missionary, or church planter and equip them with the necessary training on a local level to develop the necessary skill-set for them to realize the call of God on their hearts in this capacity. Toward that end, the following 6 spheres will be developed incrementally through the project:

One on one, class size and small group discipleship for new converts to help build a firm foundation in the faith and to connect them to local church communities.

Intentional Real-time Witness through Marketplace and Neighborhood Outreach, in conjunction with local church and para-church ministries, using various techniques geared toward engaging people with the gospel through personal witness. This would include:

Neighborhood canvassing in conjunction with local churches.

Marketplace witness through the use of questionnaires, drama, mime, music, testimony and other appropriate outreach methods.

Supporting occasional outreach events with local churches and para-church organizations.

Linking with local compassionate and social justice ministries that are reaching out to the poor and needy around us in Polk Co.

Connecting with local church and para-church ministries that help homeless and indigent poor in the Polk Co. Area such as Gospel Inc.

Strategic Digital Outreach in the Cyber-Agora:

Facilitating the use of digital media in presenting the gospel. For an explanation of how this works and works well try this link to Strategic Digital Outreach in Santa Cruz, CA.

Promoting dialogue in the blogosphere, twitter, Facebook and other such mediums.

Helping local churches develop a cyber-presence explicitly for outreach purposes, through the use of the internet and other digital mediums.

Providing material and opportunity for cyber-discipleship and connections to local believers and churches.

Encouraging the development of cyber-cafes, and other venues for connecting with unbelievers and others involved in cyber-evangelism, such as KnowingGod.com, Living Waters, etc.

Organizing teams of students to eventually plant churches in central Florida, the U.S. and beyond.

Working with various denominational bodies to help license individuals for ordained ministry.

Developing written proposals to help identify key demographics for planting potential, recruit team members, articulate vision and raise funds for the initial church launch, to include pastoral staff salary, equipment purchases and facility rentals, etc.

Sponsoring and/or promoting on campus church multiplication seminars, symposiums, conferences guest speakers, etc. that would encourage those with a call to church planting. We are sponsoring the 2010 LiveSent Conversation on Southeastern’s campus this fall on Sept. 17th and 18th – to learn more about this significant missional event for Central Florida go to Reproducing Churches website by clicking here: www.reproducingchurches.com.

Designing research methodology to help assess effectiveness of various evangelism methods through the use of online and real time survey instruments, qualitative interviews, participant observation and other forms of credible research.

Gathering, analyzing and presenting data that will help inform future evangelistic efforts for the furtherance of the gospel within the local and global cultures in which we reside. As an example once we have enough student participation we will move forward to begin gathering data for our communities through such service organizations that provide research data such as Community Impact Research, The Association of Religion Data Archives, and the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

Publishing popular level and scholarly journal articles, books, blogs and other such material that may help inform the practice of evangelism and church planting.

WHO: The G.E.O. project focuses primarily on those who feel a distinct call to be a missional witness in the world today. Participants may be religion majors who are pursuing ordained ministry as an evangelist, church planter and/or missionary, or those in Psych., Business, Education, Medicine, Law or other disciplines who want to be a part of missional ministry efforts during their education here at SEU. Faculty and staff that want to be involved in various outreach efforts are encouraged to participate as their schedules permit.

HOW: By organizing weekly prayer and training meetings for the purpose of mobilizing students for regular and occasional intentional outreaches in conjunction with local churches and para-church organizations we offer long-term oversight to establish venues for students to be engaged in evangelism activities in both local and global (through strategic digital outreach) dimensions. An interactive cyber-presence for communicating about our activities, testimonies, witness, and other organizational support structure facilitates student dialogue and community for those with this type of ministry on their heart (cf.; www.barnabasmissions.org and/or www.drbriankelly.com ).